âť“WHAT HAPPENED: A federal judge struck down a Joe Biden-era rule that expanded anti-discrimination measures to transgender healthcare, stating that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) exceeded its authority.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Judge Louis Guirola Jr., a coalition of 15 Republican-led states, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
đź“ŤWHEN & WHERE: The ruling came from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi and follows a lawsuit filed by 15 states.
đź’¬KEY QUOTE: “This decision restores not just common sense but also constitutional limits on federal overreach,” said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti.
🎯IMPACT: The ruling vacates the rule universally, reinforcing states’ rights to regulate healthcare without federal overreach.
A federal judge has ruled against a former Biden government policy that expanded anti-discrimination protections to include gender identity in healthcare. Judge Louis Guirola Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi declared that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “exceeded its authority” in redefining sex discrimination under Title IX to include gender identity.
The legal challenge was brought by a coalition of 15 Republican-led states, including Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and others. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R) praised the ruling, stating, “When Biden-era bureaucrats tried to illegally rewrite our laws to force radical gender ideology into every corner of American healthcare, Tennessee stood strong and stopped them.”
Skrmetti’s office highlighted that the rule would have mandated healthcare providers to offer gender dysphoria treatments, prohibited sex-segregated spaces, and required states to subsidize such treatments through Medicaid. The court determined that Congress’s original intent in 1972’s Title IX referred to biological sex, not gender identity. It stressed that federal agencies cannot unilaterally rewrite laws to advance political agendas.
The rule was originally introduced under the Obama administration in 2016, reversed by the Trump administration, and later reinstated by the Biden government. However, the policy had already been stayed since July 2024, preventing it from taking effect. Judge Guirola’s ruling now vacates the rule entirely.
“This decision restores not just common sense but also constitutional limits on federal overreach, and I am proud of the team of excellent attorneys who fought this through to the finish,” Skrmetti added.
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